


Intervention

by AgentIanLegend



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort, Jack isn’t an idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24426994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentIanLegend/pseuds/AgentIanLegend
Summary: For once, not everybody is obliviously asleep when Danny sneaks home from a 1:00am ghost fight: his father has decided it's time for an intervention.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton, Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Jazz Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Comments: 28
Kudos: 280





	Intervention

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Friday!
> 
> I actually wrote this months ago sort of as a thank-you to RosyThorn, my first beta reader ever who helped me with my earliest stories. She very aptly pointed out that Danny-Jack reveals are few and far between. Plus, Jack is rarely given more importance than being a punchline and deserves a lot more credit than he's given by the fandom *and* the show itself. So, enjoy!

Danny was particularly late this evening. It wasn't his worst, but creeping through the front door around 1:00 when he'd been expected home for dinner at 6:30 was by no means a minor offense in his father's eyes.

In all honesty, Danny didn't really expect anyone to still be awake. The living room lights still being on, however, disillusioned him of that hope. Somebody was awake, and there was no way Danny could go ghost and slip upstairs unnoticed thanks to his excess of exhaustion.

' _F**king Skulker,'_ he growled mentally and gave the Fenton Thermos at his side a firm thump.

The boy took a few deep breaths before unlocking the door and peaking inside. Sure enough, his father sat on the couch with an invention in hand. The man's gaze immediately snapped to Danny, causing the boy to flinch under its intensity.

"You're home."

With an awkward laugh and a guilty smile, Danny entered fully and shut the door behind him. He licked his lips and began, "Um, Dad? I-"

"SAVE IT."

Danny flinched much more violently this time and snapped his mouth shut. Jack Fenton was known throughout the community as a jovial, happy-go-lucky man who never failed to see the best in any person or situation. The towering man defined the phrase 'slow to anger;' his temper truly flaring was almost as common as snow in Egypt. So for those two simple words to have been spoken so venomously…

' _Shit.'_

Jack put the invention down on the coffee table. "Sit down, Daniel."

' _Legal name? Double shit.'_ Danny sat down at the other end of the curving sofa from his father and hid the Thermos behind him. Danny shrunk in on himself, trying to appear as small as possible.

Jack stared harshly and appraised the boy's appearance. As his eyes jumped from bruise to bruise, scrape to scrape, his anger morphed into fatherly concern. Danny folded and rubbed his arms seemingly to rub the injuries away, but to no avail. The two Fenton men finally made eye contact with each other, and Jack sighed deeply.

"We are not blind, Danny," Jack said. "I certainly am not. I never bring this up because I know your mother; hearing someone else confirm her suspicions that something is wrong would send her into a spiral, so I never bring it up to let her live in blissful ignorance. But _I am not blind._ "

"I—I—" Danny sighed and looked down in shame. "I know."

"I try not to interfere, son," his father continued. "You are a growing boy, you have your own life. But you've gotta realize that you have to learn to balance responsibility _sometime._ "

"But I was…studying with Sam and we lost track-"

"No, you were _not._ I realize how you spend your free time is an extension of who you are, but you need to balance it with your regular life."

"Balance…studying?" Danny asked, perplexed.

"You don't even have your backpack with you!"

"I—I left it at Tucker's!"

"Sam's."

"Sam's!"

"No, you didn't. It's right here," Jack rebutted and lifted it from beside the sofa. "In the living room, abandoned despite your mother's ever-lovin' rule that you have to take it up to your room."

"I knew I forgot something at home," Danny tried as an excuse.

" _Lord give me strength,"_ Jack whispered to himself with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "Look, we need to just get this out in the open so we can both drop the act. So, talk. Tell me anything you want. I promise I won't overreact."

"Tell you what? There's nothing to tell," Danny insisted.

"Tell me what you get up to every night when you think _we_ think you're in your room."

Leave it to his father to bring it up on one of the worst possible nights, one in which he was visibly battered from a fight and couldn't cover up his lies as easily.

"Dad, I'm not doing anything, I-"

"Yes, you are!" he said with a single escaped chuckle of indignation. His gloved hand gestured at Danny's battered forearm. "This is unacceptable, Danny. Just level with me. I can handle it. I'm your dad. There's nothing you can do which will change that, understand?"

"Nothing except time travel," Danny mumbled cynically to himself.

"This is no time for jokes!" Jack snapped, and Danny spasmed at the outburst. "You're coming home later and later, you're getting bruised and cut _beyond_ belief, your grades are rapidly approaching insufficient for college, let alone graduation…"

"I promise I'm not doing anything bad!"

"I know that! Do you think I'm stupid or something?" Jack replied. He grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table and turned it on, revealing a paused newscast of that night's ghost fight. Onscreen, Phantom was front and center.

Danny darted his eyes between the television and Jack's impatient frown.

Jack's eyebrows raised slightly.

"…Um…" was all Danny managed to say.

"This is like pulling teeth!" Jack exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep your mother off the scent?"

"Off…the scent…of—?"

"Good god, Danno, it's really not that hard to figure out. We raised you, we taught you the basic self-defense moves, and we 'fight' you almost every single day. Of _course_ I know. I mean, did you _really_ think I was that bad of a shot?"

"I—uh—"

"I was president of the marksmanship club at UW Madison, for god's sake!" Jack barked. "And—I love your sister, I really do, but Jazzypants is not a good actress or liar. It's so obvious she knows you're Phantom."

Danny's stomach and jaw both dropped.

"I've only kept your mom out of the loop because I didn't want to burden her, and I know she would be all over your case to study your physiology. But I have to be honest, Danny: I'm gettin' real sick of sabotaging all of our ghost fights with you."

"You—*you*—you _know?!_ " Danny finally exclaimed. "For how long?!"

"Since pretty early on," Jack replied. "I do a pretty good job of keeping your mother distracted so you can grow on your own and discover yourself. You know, an explosion here, a ridiculous theory there…those usually keep her off your back since she spends so much time trying to bring me back down to earth. But I'm tired of acting like a moron. I'm _tired_ , and I can only do so much when you come home at one in the morning with bruises all over!"

"Why have you not told me you know before?!" Danny asked and collapsed back onto the couch.

"Practice! Not everyone's gonna be on your side or be able to keep a secret. Make your slip-ups now when it doesn't matter as much so you'll be better when you go off to college and get a roommate."

"I can't believe I didn't know you knew," Danny whined. "It's been so exhausting keeping it from you."

"Well, that's why I waited up. Clearly, something's gotta give."

Danny dragged his hands down his face. "Oh my god."

"But now, you have another ally in the house. Well, you always did, but now you _know_ you do, and we can start doing this better _together._ "

"So why tonight?"

Jack grabbed a pamphlet from the coffee table and held it out for his son. "Your mother is getting worried."

Danny read the text on the pamphlet's cover and laughed heartily, releasing some of the tension which had been building.

' _Waverly Hills Rehabilitation Center - New Futures Today'_

"N-no, it's not drugs," the teen admitted. He looked from the pamphlet to his father's open, loving, proud face and, with a sniffle, wiped his nose on his forearm.

"Are you okay, Danny?"

"Um, yeah, Dad, it's just—I didn't expect—with being the ghost boy and-"

"Oh, son." Jack shifted closer to Danny on the expansive couch. "Please forgive us for anything we've done to make you think you can't trust us! There is absolutely nothing in this world that would keep me from loving my boy, especially when he's following in his old man's footsteps!" He pulled his son into another, tighter hug and rested his chin on top of Danny's skull.

"I'm so—so relieved," Danny said, voice muffled by the hug. When his dad released him, Danny relaxed against the back of the sofa. "I'm sorry, by the way."

"For what?"

"Well, at the start there, it was really hard to control my powers because they were always wigging out. I didn't mean to break the water glasses, or Mom's Pyrex casserole dish, or the wedding china at Thanksgiving…or all those beakers at school, or my phone—well, _phones_ —or-"

Jack laughed. "I thought that's what was happening. So…it was the portal, right?"

"Yeah, it was the portal," the boy confirmed.

"Just like Barry Allen, I _knew_ it!" Jack cheered to himself.

Danny sat up. "What?!"

"Oh come on, Danno! Haven't you read _The Flash?_ "

"Obviously," Danny deadpanned. "Comic books are my life."

"More like your life _is_ a comic book. The Flash was in a lab accident with chemicals and a ton of electricity when he got *his* powers!"

Danny crossed his arms. "Why are you comparing my life to a comic book?!" he snapped.

"Because it's a perfect metaphor!" Jack insisted. "A little shock, a bit of ectoplasm, and bada bing bada boom! GHOST powers!"

Danny stood up in protest. "It took me a _hell_ of a lot more than a 'little shock' to make me into this!" He transformed into Danny Phantom for emphasis.

"What do you mean? When we got home and the portal was on, you seemed a little shaken but overall okay, and you said it was only a spark when the portal turned on."

"Think, Dad," Phantom pushed and, with a hand on his hip, shifted his body weight to one leg. "Where exactly did you put the 'on' button anyway?"

Jack frowned as he thought about it, and Danny would never forget the horror, shock and outrage that dawned on his father's face when he realized why they hadn't been anywhere near an 'on' button since the day the portal activated.

* * *

It took a few moments for Maddie to finally admit to herself that she was awake. She battled against it as long as she could, but there was no denying that the comforting, problem-less world of sleep now eluded her. She sighed and shifted on her mattress, wondering what commotion could have possibly roused her despite her ear plugs. She twisted her torso around to feel Jack's vacant spot on the bed. 'Huh, still downstairs. Danny isn't home yet?!' She sat up and removed the Fenton plugs. A loud argument wafted upstairs and through her closed bedroom door.

A gentle, pulsating light caught her attention. It was an alert on the master control screen for the home's defenses mounted next to the bed. _'Ectoplasmic Signature Detected'_ blinked as a silent notification on the screen; no alarms or defenses would activate until the system was engaged once everyone was safely inside. Maddie grabbed her ecto-pistol from her bedside table and strode to the door, disabling the weapon's safety as she went. She pressed one ear against the wood and verified the immediate vicinity was silent. The woman then opened the door and saw Jazz emerging from her own room down the hall. The two made eye contact, and Maddie crept to her daughter's side. "Do you know what's happening?" she asked the girl.

"No idea," Jazz mouthed, emerging with a Fenton Anti-Creep Stick in hand.

The two Fenton women could hear the voices a little more clearly, but they were still indiscernible. Whoever it was must've realized the rest of the household would awaken if they weren't careful. _'A bit late for that,'_ Maddie thought ruefully and gestured towards the staircase. Both began to slowly advance.

" _Didn't you realize how dangerous it was?!"_ Jack's voice rang out.

" _Sssshhhh!"_ a second person hushed.

Maddie and Jazz exchanged looks. Both of them were suddenly terrified. They inched down the steps.

" _You could have died! It was so STUPID to go in there-"_ Jack continued.

" _It's not like it worked anyway!"_ the other person quipped sarcastically. _"Besides, you were going on and on about how cool it would be. It's like a gazelle hiding from lions then shouting, 'Look! Over here!"_

" _CLEARLY we need to review the lab safety practices!"_

" _Oh, like thoughts of personal safety have ever stopped you before!"_

Maddie made eye contact with Jazz once more, and they silently agreed to make their presence known. They charged the rest of the way downstairs to find…an unexpected scene.

Maddie's jaw dropped as she looked between the two. Jack had his fists balled tensely at his sides, but he had no weapon in hand despite the ghost with which he was arguing. The man's clenched teeth were bared while he glared at the other participant in the argument. In front of him stood— _stood_ —an indignant Danny Phantom who had his arms crossed like a petulant child. Both turned their attention to the women, and their glowers dissipated instantly at the sight of Maddie's drawn pistol and Jazz's raised bat.

The moment Jack registered the pistol, he jumped in between her and Phantom and made himself as wide as possible. "Don't shoot! It's not what you think!"

Maddie's arms dropped slightly, though the pistol remained in hand. "Jack, what-?"

Phantom peeked sheepishly from under Jack's raised left arm. "Well, the _good_ news is it wasn't drugs?" he suggested with a shrug.

A slap echoed through the room. Maddie turned to see Jazz's face resting in her palm.

**Author's Note:**

> There's actually only one Easter egg this time around! (It's a real shocker for those of you that follow me.) The name of the rehab center is a tribute to Waverly Hills Sanitorium, supposedly the most haunted location on Earth.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Your reactions and feedback are always appreciated. :)


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